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Storage: more is always better
Hard drives
The hard drive is your PC's massive filing cabinet that holds the
operating system, your applications, and all of your work files.
Given the elephantine size of modern applications (Windows 2000
needs almost 1GB) and files (an MP3 can easily soak up 5MB), buy
more disk space, not less.
Modern hard drives typically hold gigabytes (billions of bytes)
worth of data. A typical computer ships with a 20GB to 30GB drive,
but you may encounter drives as svelte as 7.5GB or as big as 80GB.
Just remember that the system you're picking may not support all
drive sizes; in particular, budget systems may not be compatible
with large drives.
Hard drives are rated in terms of rotational speed and interface.
Higher rotational speed lets the drive find data faster, and a faster
interface supports speedier data transfers, boosting the drive's
overall performance. Typical drives run at 7,200 rpm, but some of
the very fastest drives actually spin at a slower 5,400 rpm. Faster
rotational speed reduces latency, the average time the drive's platters
must spin before the data can be read. But the interface is the
more telling speed spec here. Most drives support either Ultra-DMA/66
or Ultra-DMA/100; the numbers refer to the maximum burst rate at
which the drive can pass data to the system (66MB or 100MB per second,
respectively). Ultra-DMA/66 drives are more common, but Ultra-DMA/100
is emerging. In either case, you'll need a drive cable and controller
(usually built into the motherboard) that can accommodate the speed.
Fortunately, a faster drive will work with a slower interface--you
just won't get top performance from it.
The bottom line: PCs never seem to have enough storage space,
so get at least a 30GB hard drive. Only leap to 80GB drives if you're
working with mondo databases, capturing and editing digital video,
and so on.
CD/DVD drives
Virtually all major software packages are now released on CD-ROM,
so you'll need a drive that can read these shiny discs. But you
needn't settle for a plain old CD-ROM drive. A CD-R/RW drive, which
can burn its own CD-ROMs and music CDs (the R side) or use erasable
optical discs like a hard drive (the RW side), can also read CDs
and CD-ROMs just fine. The CD-R/RW drive is practically standard
equipment on modern PCs--an ideal choice when you want to back up
your work, develop presentations, archive documents and photos,
or save large files you want to exchange with other users. These
drives are also affordable.
The other option is the DVD-ROM drive, which can play back all
types of CDs, DVD-ROMs (which can potentially hold up to 18GB of
data), and DVD movies. But you can't record data with these drives.
 CD
drives are rated in terms of interface speed, based on the traditional
floppy drive speed of 150K per second. For example, a 24X CD-ROM
drive moves data at 3,600K per second (150K multiplied by 24). With
a CD-R/RW drive, you might see three speeds listed, such as 8X/4X/32X.
The first is the write speed using CD-R media (when "burning"
a CD-ROM). The second notes the write speed using erasable CD-RWs.
The third number indicates how fast the drive can read a CD. Obviously,
the bigger these numbers, the faster the drive. Hooking up a CD-R/RW
drive is also a snap, since it typically connects to your PC's existing
drive controller.
Since DVD-ROM drives can only read discs, manufacturers typically
publish one performance number, such as 12X. The drive's performance
may range from 2.5X for reading DVDs to 17X for reading CDs; the
number shown is an average. Just remember that DVD video is very
demanding. Depending on the PC you buy, you may need a separate
MPEG-2 decoder card (which has its own processor) to play back DVD
movies without dropped frames and other hiccups. Some PC makers
save money by giving you a software decoding program instead. Playback
quality can be just fine--if your PC has a fast processor and hard
drive and lots of RAM. But smooth video decoding is harder to come
by if you're running anything in the background. Then again, do
you really want to play DVD movies on your PC? If you do, opt for
a MPEG decoder card with a TV output jack.
The bottom line: Go with a CD-R/RW drive; it reads a ton
of disc types and lets you master your own CDs and do high-capacity
backups.
What about multimedia
and connectivity?
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